KCNA Cloud Native Application Delivery Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A team uses Helm to manage a complex application. They want to perform a release upgrade but keep a record of the previous release so they can roll back if needed. Which Helm command should they use?

Accepted Answer

helm upgrade --history-max 5. The 'helm upgrade' command with the '--history-max' flag sets the maximum number of release versions to retain. Without this flag, old versions are kept by default, allowing rollback. Alternatively, 'helm upgrade' alone maintains history; 'helm rollback' is used later. But the question asks which command to use for the upgrade while keeping history. 'helm upgrade' naturally keeps history unless '--history-max' is set to 0.

Answer

helm delete --purge

Answer

helm rollback

Answer

helm install

Question 2

In Flux, which controller is responsible for reconciling the desired state defined in a Git repository to the cluster?

Accepted Answer

Kustomize Controller. Flux's Source Controller fetches artifacts (e.g., Git repositories, Helm repos) but does not apply changes. The Kustomize Controller is the primary controller that reconciles the desired state from those sources to the cluster.

Answer

Image Automation Controller

Answer

Source Controller

Answer

Helm Controller

Question 3

A team wants to implement a canary deployment strategy for their Kubernetes application. Which tool is specifically designed for progressive delivery and can be used to automate canary rollouts?

Accepted Answer

Argo Rollouts. Argo Rollouts is a Kubernetes controller and set of CRDs that provides advanced deployment capabilities such as blue-green and canary deployments with automated promotion and rollback.

Answer

Flux

Answer

Kustomize

Answer

Helm

Question 4

Which DORA metric measures the percentage of deployments that cause a failure in production?

Accepted Answer

Change Failure Rate. Change Failure Rate is the percentage of changes that result in a failure (e.g., service degradation, rollback). It is one of the four key DORA metrics.

Answer

Deployment Frequency

Answer

Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR)

Answer

Lead Time for Changes

Question 5

An organization uses Flux with Kustomize to manage their Kubernetes applications. They want to automatically update their deployment when a new container image is pushed to the registry. Which Flux component should they use?

Accepted Answer

Image Automation Controller. Flux's Image Automation Controller automates updates based on image policies. It can update manifests in Git when a new image tag is found, triggering a sync.

Answer

Source Controller

Answer

Helm Controller

Answer

Kustomize Controller

Question 6

In Kustomize, what is the purpose of an overlay?

Accepted Answer

To apply environment-specific customizations on top of a base. Kustomize overlays allow customizing a base configuration for different environments (e.g., dev, prod) by applying patches without modifying the base.

Answer

To merge multiple Kubernetes manifests into one

Answer

To template variables into YAML files

Answer

To define the base configuration of an application

Question 7

A CI/CD pipeline includes image scanning. What is the primary security benefit of scanning container images in the CI phase?

Accepted Answer

It prevents vulnerable images from being deployed to production. Scanning images in CI catches vulnerabilities before the image is deployed, preventing vulnerable images from reaching production.

Answer

It reduces the time it takes to build images

Answer

It automatically fixes vulnerabilities

Answer

It ensures that the image is built only once

Question 8

What is the primary advantage of using Helm to package a Kubernetes application?

Accepted Answer

It provides a templating engine to parameterize Kubernetes manifests. Helm packages Kubernetes manifests into a single chart, allowing easy installation, upgrades, and rollbacks with parameterization via values.yaml.

Answer

It automatically scales applications based on load

Answer

It enforces security policies on deployments

Answer

It manages network policies between services

Question 9

A team uses ArgoCD with a Git repository that contains Helm charts. They want ArgoCD to automatically sync when a new image tag is pushed to the container registry. Which approach should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use ArgoCD Image Updater. ArgoCD Image Updater is the official tool to automatically update image tags in Kubernetes manifests (including Helm values) and commit changes to Git, triggering ArgoCD to sync.

Answer

Use Flux Image Automation Controller

Answer

Configure a webhook from the registry to ArgoCD API server

Answer

Manually update the Helm values and commit

Question 10

In a CI/CD pipeline, what is the difference between continuous delivery and continuous deployment?

Accepted Answer

Continuous delivery requires manual approval for production deployment; continuous deployment automates it. Continuous delivery ensures code is always in a deployable state but requires manual approval for production deployment. Continuous deployment automatically deploys every change to production without manual intervention.

Answer

Continuous delivery automatically deploys to production; continuous deployment does not

Answer

There is no difference; the terms are used interchangeably

Answer

Continuous deployment runs tests; continuous delivery does not

Question 11

Which TWO of the following are capabilities of ArgoCD? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Automated application sync from Git to cluster. ArgoCD provides automated sync (applying desired state from Git) and self-healing (automatically reverting configuration drift). It is not a CI tool and does not build images.

Answer

Building container images from source code

Answer

Running unit tests during deployment

Answer

Managing secrets using Kubernetes Secrets

Question 12

Which THREE of the following are features of Helm that facilitate release management? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Rollback to a previous release revision. Helm provides rollback to previous revisions, stores release history, and upgrades releases while preserving history. It does not natively do canary deployments or autoscaling.

Answer

Canary deployment strategy

Answer

Horizontal pod autoscaling

Question 13

Which TWO of the following are deployment patterns that can be used to update applications with minimal downtime? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Blue-green deployment. Blue-green and canary are deployment patterns that reduce downtime by gradually shifting traffic. Rolling update is also a pattern but the question asks for minimal downtime; blue-green and canary are specifically designed for that.

Answer

DaemonSet deployment

Answer

Sidecar deployment

Answer

Recreate deployment

Question 14

What is the primary purpose of a continuous integration (CI) pipeline in cloud native application delivery?

Accepted Answer

To build and test code changes automatically. CI automates building and testing code changes to catch integration issues early, ensuring that code is always in a deployable state.

Answer

To provision infrastructure resources

Answer

To automatically deploy code to production

Answer

To manage container images in a registry

Question 15

In GitOps with ArgoCD, what happens when the desired state in Git differs from the live state in the cluster?

Accepted Answer

ArgoCD syncs the cluster to match Git if auto-sync is enabled. ArgoCD detects drift and can automatically sync the cluster to match Git, enabling self-healing.

Answer

ArgoCD reports an error and stops working

Answer

ArgoCD deletes the Git repository

Answer

ArgoCD automatically reverts the changes in Git